23/07/2009

As the saying goes “never judge a book by its cover”, and brand owners and managers should really be taking this old but reliable saying to heart.

Not only are your customers and staff reading your brand like a book, they aren’t too keen when the cover doesn’t match what’s inside. Sexy covers with grey boring stories inside using different typefaces, size and languages really do not get them to connect to the brand.

The ever more transparent world we live in has given brands no place to hide, we have moved from a brand loyalty where customers were expected to worship the icons of consumerism to a brand loyalty that is all about brands being loyal and generous to their customers. What a difference a decade makes.

Consumers and employees have gone way beyond the point where they can sold one thing and have another delivered to them, either as a product or a service. They know the brand models that have the rabid increasing of customer yield as a core strategy because they see the gap between words and actions leak out through he way the brand behaves towards them.

Consumers have found a word for this, and it is extraction, where the evident relationship is based on taking and no giving back to the customer. Generous brand give something back that is a tangible benefit for consumers. Adding value is more than just a bit off; it is about a level of satisfaction that helps them justify having the brand experience again. A lack of alignment between the words and actions of the brand seriously erodes the satisfaction and therefore undermines the justification to repeat the experience, why would they, would you?

The strategic damage done to brands when they say one thing and do another is immense in this transparent world we live in when in an instant opinion can go global via the vast array of consumer commentary armoury.

The real killer is that once they identify bad brand behaviour they have all the tools available to let everyone know, and it is no longer the case that they tell 10 people, no they have the whole planet to talk to. Look at Virgin and the in flight food complaint, it made BBC 1 morning news. The start of this transparency, customer empowered movement can be taken back to when we nearly brought M&S and Sainsbury to their knees for doing one thing and saying another. Sainsbury reinforced their problems by also making fun of their colleagues at the front of house.

It’s really great to see these brands back at the top of their game, through an understanding that the cover and contents f their book needed to be aligned, but what an expensive way to learn that we have the power now.

There seems little point in brands trying to resist this process as there is nothing they can do to stop their insides leaking out so why bother. Why not get round t sorting these gaps out and match the brand contents to its cover

So is there an answer?

How about a bit of good old fashioned doing what you say you are going to do. Simple but effective. Matching the words to the actions of the brand, we call this brand alignment, makes good business and brand sense. The brands that have worked this out are maintaining and strengthening their position, even in the downturn.

These brands are working it out and beginning to organise themselves in such a way as t deliver their promises consistently and in the way that their customers will recognise the close alignment between their words and their actions. They work with their customers and employees to understand what is required, what the vision for the brand is and then how to deliver it on the ground directly to customers’ day in and day out. Inspiring and exciting the whole brand team understand their role in delivering the promise and enabling them to get on with it by ensuring operational effectiveness.

The responsibility for delivering the brand runs across the organisation and so must the alignment. You don’t build great brands without brilliant procurement, the best talent, great internal communication, solid financial control, clear visionary management, dynamic sales and insightful and stimulating marketing.

If brands spent as much care, time and resources on making sure they delivered their promises rather than just firing off claims and counter claims they would have a chance of really beginning to satisfy customers. Imagine a reduced level of transmission spend, a little more listening to customers and then more emphasis on aligning the experience, how it is delivered at point of contact with customers it this transparent and connected world your customers might do part of the job for you.

Innocent drinks haven’t done too badly, love them or hate them you absolutely know what you are going to get when buying and when flying with Ryanair you also have a clear picture of what you are going to get – cheap flights period but please don’t expect Ritz like service, Aldi deliver great value quality food presented at an honest price with no frills (checking out their car park will tell you that this is not just a down market store, it’s really got the upmarket canny shoppers excited too).

On the other bookshelf we see the banks, politicians, many high a number of high street retails who have missed the alignment boat.

If the cover of the “book” you have sold your customers more than matches the delights inside then there is a very good chance that they will be more than willing to be a part of your communication channels, after all the most powerful communication channel in today’s transparent world is the behaviour of your brand not just its words.

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